SLAVERY 


AND  THE 


Aiuericaii  Board  of  Commissioners 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS, 


NEW  YORK : 

AMERICAN  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY,  138  NASSAU  ST, 
BOSTON  :  21  CORNHILL, 


1859 


®|,c  Jimcrititn  ioiarlj  of  (Jiommisswrs 

FOK 

FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


This  Association,  instituted  in  1810  for  the  difFu-i 
sion  of  the  Gospel  among  foreign  heathen  nations, 
now  consists  of  two  hundred  and  five  Corporate  mem¬ 
bers,  and  more  than  ten  thousand  Honorary  members. 
Its  receipts  from  the  religious  public,  having  pretty 
steadily  increased  from  the  commencement,  amounted 
last  year  to  more  than  $370,000. 

From  the  year  1840  to  the  present  time,  the  Board 
have  been  urged  at  almost  every  annual  meeting,  by 
various  petitions  and  memorials,  to  withdraw  the 
support  and  countenance  which  they  were  affording 
to  slavery.  Their  utter  indifference  in  regard  to  that 
subject  before  it  was  forced  upon  them  from  without, 
is  shown  by  the  facts  that  they  not  only  then  (as 
now)  freely  admitted  slaveholders  to  their  churches, 
as  Christians,  but  that  several  of  their  missionaries 
in  the  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  nations  were  slavehold¬ 
ers,  and  others  extensively  used  the  hired  labor  of 
slaves,  paying  therefor,  not  the  laborer  himself,  but 
the  pretended  owner  of  the  laborer,  and  thus  partic¬ 
ipating  in  that  system  which  defrauded  the  actual 
laborer  of  part  of  his  wages.  Moreover,  they  were 


4 


so  far  from  discouraging  slavery  by  church  discipline, 
that  Mr.  Treat,  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Board, 
represented  the  increased  number  of  slaves  in  the 
Cherokee  and  Choctaw  nations,  and  the  general  pref¬ 
erence  there  felt  for  investing  money  in  this  ‘  species 
of  property,’  as  one  of  the  results  of  ‘  the  doctrines 
of  the  Gospel  having  exerted  their  appropriate  influ¬ 
ence.’  \^Missio7iary  Herald,  the  ofEcial  organ  of  the 
A.  B.  C.  E.  M.,  October  1848,  p.  349.] 

We  propose  now  to  show,  by  ample  quotation  from 
the  language  of  the  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  missiona¬ 
ries,  (as  given  in  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Board,) 
and  from  the  acquiescence  of  the  Board  in  the  con¬ 
tinuance  of  the  course  of  policy  indicated  in  that  lan¬ 
guage,  that  both  these  parties  hold  a  pro-slavery  (and 
thus  an  anti-Christian)  position. 

The  missionaries  favor  slavery  in  a  three-fold  man¬ 
ner  ;  first,  by  entirely  abstaining  from  the  rebuke  of 
slavery,  though  an  aggravated  form  of  that  wicked¬ 
ness  is  prosperous  and  flourishing  in  the  very  region 
where  they  pretend  to  exercise  the  function  of  minis¬ 
ters  of  the  Gospel ;  next,  by  taking,  and  openly  pro¬ 
claiming  that  they  will  continue  to  take,  the  men 
who  are  stained  with  that  wickedness  into  full  mem¬ 
bership  in  their  churches ;  and,  lastly,  by  appealing 
to  the  Christian  Scriptures  in  justification  of  this 
course  of  policy,  and  claiming  God  s  approval  of  it, 
thus  perverting  that  very  Christianity  of  which  they 
pretend  to  be  the  ministers,  and  teaching  another 
heathenism  to  the  people  whom  they  claim  to  have 
converted  from  heathenism.  Here  is  their  language  : 

Extracts  from  the  letter  of  the  Cherokee  missiona- 


5 


ries  on  slavery,  signed  by  Elizur  Butler,  Moderator^ 
and  S.  A.  Worcester,  Clerk  : — 

‘  In  regard  to  the  question  of  rejecting  any  person 
from  the  church  simply  because  he  is  a  slaveholder, 
we  cannot  for  a  moment  hesitate.  For  (1)  we  regard 
it  as  certain  that  the  Apostles,  who  are  our  patterns,  did 
receive  slaveholders  to  the  communion  of  the  Church; 
and  we  have  not  yet  been  able  to  perceive  any  such, 
difference  between  their  circumstances  and  ours  as  to 
justify  us  in  departing  from  their  practice  in  this  re¬ 
spect.  And  (2)  our  general  rule  is  to  receive  all  to 
our  communion  who  give  evidence  that  they  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  ;  and  we  cannot  doubt 
that  many  slaveholders  do  give  such  evidence. 

‘  Nor  can  we  even  make  it  a  test  of  piety,  or  a  con¬ 
dition  of  admission  to  the  privileges  of  the  Church, 
that  a  candidate  should  express  a  determination  not  to 
live  and  die  a  slaveholder  ' — 39th  Annual  Report, 
1848,  p.  93. 

‘  Occasional  exchanges  of  masters  are  so  inseparable 
from  the  existence  of  slavery  that  the  churches  could 
not  consistently  receive  slaveholders  to  their  commu¬ 
nion  at  all,  and  at  the  same  time  forbid  all  such  ex~ 
changes.  AVe  regard  it,  therefore,  as  impossible  to 

EXEIiCISE  DISCIPLINE  FOR  THE  BUYING  OR  SELLING  OF 
SLAVES,  except  in  flagrant  cases  of  manifest  disregard 
to  the  welfare  of  the  slave.’ — p.  94. 

‘  In  regard  to  the  separation  of  parents  and  children, 
we  must  first  remark,  that  it  is  one  of  those  things 
which  are  not  forbidden  by  any  express  injunction 
OF  Scripture.’  *  *  *  ‘  It  is  impossible,  in  our 

circumstances,  to  make  it  a  general  rule  that  the  sep¬ 
aration  of  parents  and  children,  by  sale  or  purchase, 
shall  be  regarded  as  a  disciplinable  offence.’ — pp. 
94,  95. 

Extracts  from  the  letter  of  the  Choctaw  missiona¬ 
ries  on  slavery,  signed  by  C.  Kingsbury,  Alfred 


6 


Weight,  Ctetjs  Byington,  E.  Hotchkhst,  C.  C. 
Copeland,  David  Bkeed,  Jr.,  H.  K.  Copeland,  and 
D,  II,  WiNSHip,  with  a  signature  of  dissent  from  J. 
C.  STRONG:— 

‘  We  have  endeavored  as  a  mission  to  keep  aloof 
from  the  abolition  movement.’ — p.  98. 

‘  We  feel  that  the  Bible  contains  all  that  we  have 
need  to  know  or  teach.  And  we  prefer  to  use  the 
PLAIN  LANGUAGE  OP  THE  BiBLE,  juSt  aS  it  is,  UPON 
THE  SUBJECT  OP  8LAVEEY.’ — p.  98. 

‘  We  wish  to  touch  briefly  on  the  history  of  our 
connection  with  slavery.  We  have  been  and  are  con ~ 
nected  with  it  in  two  ways;  by  employing  slaves  as 
laborers,  and  by  admitting  them  and  their  masters  to 
the  Church.’ — p.  98. 

‘  Several  masters  have  given  evidence  of  piety,  and 
were  received  into  the  Church,  because  the  Apos¬ 
tles  HAVE  SET  us  PLAIN  EXAMPLES.’ — p.  100. 

‘  As  a  civil  relation,  it  [slavery]  exists  by  virtue  of 
the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  land.  We  are  taught 
in  the  Bible  our  duties  as  citizens.  It  may  be  deemed 
our  duty  by  some  to  adopt  a  train  of  measures  which 
shall  aim  in  their  object  directly  to  countervail  the 
whole  system,  and  in  the  end  undermine  the  entire 
fabric  which  human  legislation  has  framed  in  regard 
to  slavery.  We  do  not  feel  that  we  are  required  to 
adopt  such  a  course.  Nor  do  we  regard  this  as  our 
work.’ — Ib. 

‘  As  slavery,  with  various  modifications,  has  for  a 
long  time  had  an  existence  m  the  Church  of  God,  it 
is  proper  for  us  to  inquire  how  the  servants  op 
THE  Lord  in  old  time  were  taught  by  Him,  as 

WELL  AS  HOW  THEY  CONDUCTED  IN  REGARD  TO  IT.’  — 
p.  101. 

The  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  missionaries  have  held 
this  ground,  and  acted  upon  it,  ever  since  1848,  when 


7 


these  letters  were  published.  And  yet  the  Board 
continue,  to  this  day,  to  employ  and  support,  to  re¬ 
commend  and  endorse  them,  as  Christian  missionaries, 
as  ministers  of  the  Gospel. 

To  approach  more  nearly  to  an  adequate  conception 
of  the  guilt  of  the  American  Board  of  Boreign  Mis¬ 
sions  in  this  matter,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  fol¬ 
lowing  facts : — 

1.  The  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  Indians  were  slave¬ 
holders  when  the  Board  first  established  their  mis¬ 
sions  there.  The  Board  knew  that  they  were  sending 
their  missionaries-  —that  is,  the  men  who  were  to  exe¬ 
cute  their  work,  and  to  represent  the  character  of  their 
association,  and  also  to  represent  Christianity — into 
the  midst  of  slaveholders.  They  knew  perfectly  well 
that  the  question  would  come  up,  whether  the  reli¬ 
gious  system  which  those  missionaries  were  to  teach 
would  favor  slavery  or  oppose  slavery.  And  yet  they 
left  them  w'ithout  a  word  of  direction,  or  even  of  sug¬ 
gestion,  as  to  how  they  should  meet  this  momentous 
question.  This  does  not  justify,  nor  in  the  slightest 
degree  extenuate,  the  pro-slavery  course  which  the 
missionai’ies  pursued  ;  it  was  their  imperative  duty  to 
make  it  cle'^r  to  the  ignorant  and  vicious  people 
among  whom  they  were  laboring,  that  slaveholding 
was  no  more  permitted  by  the  Christian  system  than 
murder,  theft,  adultery  or  drunkenness  ;  they  had  the 
whole  matter  in  their  own  power  from  the  beginning ; 
if  they  kept  these  last-named  vices  out  of  the  Church, 
■why  did  they  let  slaveholding  into  it  ?  If  they  let 
slaveholding  in,  why  did  they  keep  these  out  ?  They 
are  as  utterly  inexcusable  as  a  Hindoo  missionary 


8 


“Would  be  who  should  expressly  reserve  to  his  converts 
the  right  of  worshipping  Juggernaut. 

But  equally  inexcusable  is  the  conduct  of  the 
Board,  in  not  helping  their  missionaries  to  be  faith¬ 
ful  in  this  important  matter  by  express  instruction, 
warning  and  admonition,  addressed  to  this  very  point. 
They  knew  not  only  that  slaveholding  was  a  promi¬ 
nent  and  easily  besetting  sin  of  the  heathen  people 
in  question,  but  that,  in  neighboring  regions,  the 
Christian  name  also  was  prostituted  to  the  allowance 
of  it.  It  was  their  imperative  duty  to  have  fortified 
their  missionaries  beforehand  against  this  danger  ;  to 
have  lightened  the  odium  which  Christian  faithfulness 
would  assuredly  have  brought  upon  them,  by  express 
instructions  and  an  absolute  prohibition  of  complicity 
with  slaveholding  or  toleration  of  it  for  one  moment 
in  their  Churchi-communion.  This  was  the  Board’s 
first  violation  of  duty  in  this  matter. 

2.  After  the  missionaries  had  entered  into  complic¬ 
ity  with  slavery  by  holding  slaves,  and  hiring  slaves, 
‘a.ndi  freely  admitting  slaveholders  into  their  churches., 
without  a  word  of  protest  against  the  system,  the  Board 
still  kept  silence.  They  made  no  objection  to  either 
of  these  forms  of  sin.  And  the  whole  history  of  the 
transaction  shows  lohy  they  made  no  objection !  It 
was  because  they  felt  none  !  It  was  because  they 
were  perfectly  willing  to  see  slavery  taken  under  the 
protection  of  their  churches,  and  to  see  the  Christian 
name  abused  to  the  extent  of  becoming  its  bulwark  ! 
They  remained  silent  and  indifferent,  even  after  this 
wickedness  had  been  exposed  to  the  public  gaze  by 
the  Abolitionists ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  subsequent 


9 


echoing  of  this  remonstrance  by  some  of  their  own 
contributors,  who  had  been  converted  by  the  Aboli¬ 
tionists,  that  they  did  any  thing  whatever  in  the 
premises.  Their  silence  gave  consent  to  the  sin,  so 
long  as  it  was  possible  to  remain  silent. 

3.  Before  the  Board  finally  disposed  of  the  pro¬ 
slavery  letters  of  the  Cherokee  and  Choctavv  mission¬ 
aries,  and  of  the  temporizing  reply  of  Mr.  Treat, 
leaving  them  all  in  the  hands  of  that  Frndential  Com" 
mittee  of  whom  Mr.  Treat  had  been  the  mouthpiece^ 
Rev.  Dr.  Blanchard,  of  Illinois,  moved  the  following 
resolutions  by  way  of  amendment 

‘  Resolved,  That  this  Board  distinctly  admits  and 
affirms  the  principle,  that  slaveholding  is  a  practice 
which  is  not  to  be  allowed  in  the  Christian  Church, 

‘  Resolved,  That  it  is,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Board, 
the  duty  of  our  missionaries  in  the  Cherokee  and 
Choctaw  nations  to  discontinue  the  practice  of  hiring 
slaves  of  their  owners  to  do  the  work  of  the  missions  \ 
and,  in  the  reception  of  members,  to  act  on  the  prin¬ 
ciple  laid  down  by  Mr.  Treat  and  the  Prudential 
Committee,  that  slaveholding  is  prima  facie  evidence 
against  the  piety  of  the  candidates  applying  for  ad¬ 
mission  to  the  church.' 

This  amendment  was  unanimously  rejected ;  but 
afterwards,  in  consideration  of  Dr.  Blanchard’s  con» 
sent  to  w'ithdraw  it,  the  rejection  was  reconsidered  by 
a  vote  of  forty  to  thirteen,  and  the  following  compro¬ 
mise  ended  the  matter.  Dr.  Blanchard  withdrew  his 
resolutions,  and  the  Board  agreed  that  they  might  be 
entered  on  the  records  of  the  meeting. 

4.  When  the  Board  W’ere  forced,  by  the  increased 
number  of  remonstrances  from  their  contributors,  and 


10 


the  prospective  danger  of  withdrawal  of  contributions, 
to  do  something  in  regard  to  slavery,  that  something 
was  manifestly  directed  to  a  removal  of  the  reproach, 
and  of  the  agitation  consequent  upon  it,  rather  than 
of  the  sin.  It  was  plain,  alike  from  what  the  Board 
did  then,  and  from  what  they  had  refrained  from  do¬ 
ing  before,  that  they  did  not  care  for  the  oppression 
suffered  by  the  slaves,  nor  for  the  sin  of  authenticat¬ 
ing  that  oppression  by  the  admission  of  its  perpetra¬ 
tors  to  their  churches.  They  wanted  merely  that 
which  would  serve  to  avert  agitation,  end  to  continue 
the  contribution  of  cash  to  their  coffers.  They  want¬ 
ed,  in  relation  to  slavery,  just  what  their  dear  brother 
William  A.  Hallock,  Secretary  of  the  Tract  Society, 
wanted,  in  relation  to  the  rejection,  by  that  body,  of 
Kev.  Samuel  Wolcott’s  tract,  entitled,  ‘The  Sin  of 
Oppression  ’ — namely,  ‘  to  let  the  matter  rest 
WITHOUT  noise’  !  We  say  they  wanted  only  this, 
because  they  acted  as  if  they  wanted  nothing  else. 
And  this  is  what  they  did. 

When  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  keep  silence 
without  losing  men  and  money,  the  Board  changed 
its  line  of  policy,  and  used  pious  talk  instead  of  silent 
indifference  as  a  shield  against  agitation.  Their  Pru¬ 
dential  Committees,  and  their  Special  Committees, 
and  their  Special  Agents,  between  the  years  1844 
and  1850  wrote  voluminously  (though  by  no  means 
luminously)  about  slavery — ‘  about  it,  and  ahoiit  it.’ 
They  specially  avoided  giving  instructions  or  direc¬ 
tions  to  their  missionaries,  but  they  made  an  immense 
amount  of  pious  dissertation,  exhortation  and  ampli¬ 
fication,  into  which  were  infused  all  sorts  of  remon- 


11 


strances,  queries,  hints,  suggestions  and  insinuations, 
which  plainly  meant — like  the  whispered  stage  ‘  aside,’ 
the  wink,  or  the  nudge,  which  the  double-dealer 
privately  gives  to  one  parJ^y,  while  the  other  side  of 
his  face  presents  a  profound  seriousness  to  the  other 
parties  concerned,  and  to  the  throng  of  spectators — 

‘  Cmit  you  get  this  confounded  thing  out  of  our  way  ?  ’ 
They  mixed  these  substantial  and  designed-to-be-ef¬ 
fective  ingredients  of  their  communications  (varied 
by  fine  shades  of  gradation  from  open  remonstrance 
to  wink-like  suggestion)  with  an  immense  mass  of 
plausible  matter  adapted  to  quiet  the  doubts  of 
their  own  remonstrants  and  of  the  public.  They 
wrote  pages  upon  pages  of  indefinite  pious  phraseol¬ 
ogy,  and  as  much  more  of  pious  phraseology  particu¬ 
larly  directed  to  the  subject  of  slavery.  They  wrote 
against  slavery  very  hard  and  severe  things,  indeed 
almost  every  thing  that  was  bad,  except  the  decision 
that  it  was  unfit  for  admission  to  the  Christian  Church. 
They  used  again  and  again  language  which  would 
have  been  quite  sufficient  for  the  utter  condemnation 
of  slavery,  if  it  had  not  gone  side  by  side  with  the 
suggestion  of  excuses  for  that  sin^  and  the  express 
admission  that  the  pro-slavery  missionaries  were^  after 
all,  to  have  their  own  way  in  the  matter,  and  tahe  as 
many  slaveholders  into  their  churches  as  they  ehose. 

There  were,  however,  two  classes  of  pro-slavery 
men  who  were  dissatisfied  with  this  double-barrelled 
arrangement  of  the  Reports  of  the  Board.  The  more 
ignorant  and  stupid  of  the  slaveholding  church-  ' 
members  of  the  South  were  not  satisfied  to  have  any 
alloy  of  anti-slavery  talk  mixed  with  the  liberal  al- 


12 


lowance  of  pro-slavery  life  and  practice  which  the 
Board  had  conceded  to  them.  They  wanted  their 
‘  peculiar  institution  ’  praised  as  well  as  allowed,  and 
they  took  umbrage  at  those  pious  generalities  of  the 
Board  which  spoke  ill  of  slavery  in  the  very  act  of 
allowing  it.  The  complaints  of  these  people,  (who 
were  so  stupid  as  not  to  know,  or  so  ungrateful 
as  not  to  care,  that  the  Board  was  doing  the  very  ut¬ 
most  in  its  power  for  them,')  enforced  by  the  com¬ 
plaints  of  the  missionaries  themselves,  brought  out  a 
new  statement  from  the  Board  in  1849,  defining  its 
own  position. 

The  missionaries  also  took  umbrage,  and  not  without 
reason,  at  the  wounds  that  had  thus  been  given  them 
in  the  house  of  their  friends.  They  knew  that  the 
Board,  which  itself  included  slaveholders  among  its 
members,  had  no  intrinsic  objection  then,  any  more 
than  formerly,  to  their  admission  of  slaveholders  to 
the  mission  churches  ;  they  knew  that  the  pious  talk 
against  slavery  in  the  Annual  Reports  was  put  there 
only  ‘  for  Buncombe,’  and  was  brought  out  only  by  the 
pertinacious  inquiries  and  remonstrances  of  a  small 
minority  of  the  contributors  to  its  fund ;  and  they 
very  naturally  felt  aggrieved  at  the  large  amount  of 
verbal  censure  of  slavery  which  the  Board  had  incor¬ 
porated  with  its  continued  allowance  of  slavery. 
Therefore  they  also  complained,  and  in  the  Annual 
Report  for  1849,  the  Board  published  the  following 
explanatory  and  deprecatory  clauses  in  relation  to  the 
letter  above  mentioned,  written  (by  direction  of  the 
Prudential  Committee)  by  Rev.  Selah  B.  Treat,  one 
of  the  Corresponding  Secretaries,  to  the  Cherokee  and 


13 


Choctaw  missions,  and  published  in  the  previous  An¬ 
nual  Report,  pp.  102 — 111.  The  italics  are  those  of 
the  Report. 

‘  The  letter  sent  by  Mr.  Treat  to  the  mission  had 
not  that  authoritative  character  which  some  have  at¬ 
tributed  to  it.  It  expressed  opinions^  then  and  still 
entertained  bv  the  Committee  ;  but  not  in  ‘a  form 
which  made  those  opinions  decisions^  or  instructions. 
The  Committee  have  given  no  instr^ictions  to  the  mis-  0 
sionaries  in  relation  to  slavery  ;  they  say  expressly 
that  they  address  their  brethren  ‘  wit^  suggestions  and 
arguments.’’  The  distinction  betw'een  suggestions, 
opinions  and  arguments,  on  the  one  hand,  and  deci¬ 
sions,  rules  and  instructions  on  the  other,  though  ne¬ 
cessarily  familiar  to  the  conductors  of  missions,  seems 
to  have  been  overlooked  by  some  who  have  written  on 
^his  subject.’  p.  72. 

-  ■  *  *  *  *  * 

‘  This  distinction  is  vital  to  the  proper  understand¬ 
ing  of  Mr.  Treat’s  letter  to  the  Choctaw  mission  ;  and 
for  want  of  attention  to  it,  very  erroneous  constructions 
have  been  put  upon  that  letter.  With  this  practical 
distinction  in  view,  moreover,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
(^^immittee  and  the  Secretaries  have  done  nothing  in¬ 
consistent  with  the  letter  or  spirit  of  the  two  funda¬ 
mental  principles  recognized  by  the  Board  at  Brook¬ 
lyn  ;  namely,  that  credible  evidence  of  piety  is  the 
only  thing  to  be  required  for  admission  into  the 
Churches  gathered  among  the  heathen  ;  and  that  mis¬ 
sionaries  and  their  Churches  are  the  rightful  and  ex¬ 
clusive  judges  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  this  evidence.’ 
Ib. 

*  *  *  *  * 

‘  Nor  have  the  Committee  preferred  any  ‘  charges  ’ 
against  the  mission.  On  the  contrary,  they  would 
repeat  the  sentiment  in  the  letter  of  Mr.  Treat,  ex¬ 
pressing  their  undiminished  “  confidence  in  the  in¬ 
tegrity  and  faithfulness  of  these  servants  of  Christ.”  ’ 

Ib. 


14 


The  first  of  these  paragraphs  is  an  admission,  on  the 
part  of  the  Board,  that  the  pious  talk  unfavorable  to 
slavery  in  their  Reports  was  merely  talk,  and  not  de¬ 
signed  or  expected  to  modify  the  action  of  the  pro¬ 
slavery  missionaries. 

The  second  paragraph  gives  us  the  theory  by  which 
the  Board  undertake  to  justify  their  tolerance  of 
slaveholders  in  the  Mission  Churches.  They,  the 
Board  (they  say),  are  not  the  persons  to  examine  and 
decide  upon  the  claims  of  candidates  for  membership 
in  the  Mission  Churches  !  Oh  !  no,  certainly  not ! 
‘  The  missionaries  and  their  Churches  are  the  rightfu^ 
and  exclusive  judges  ’  of  that  matter;  and  so,  if  amis¬ 
sionary  and  his  Church,  in  a  slaveholding  country, 
mutually  agree  that  slavery  shall  be  supported  by  the 
sacraments  of  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper,  the 
Board  must  acquiesce,  however  different  maybe  their 
opinion !  Say  you  so,  gentlemen  of  the  Board  ? 
Then  answer  us  this  question.  If  a  missionary  and 
his  Church,  in  Hindostan,  shall  agree  together  to  ad¬ 
mit  to  church  membership  those  who  annually  join  in 
the  Juggernaut  procession,  and  claim  it  as  a  Christian 
right  still  to  do  so,  will  you  then  content  yourself 
merely  with  the  expression  of  an  adverse  opinion  f 
Will  you  then  refrain  from  giving  instructions,  while 
at  the  same  time  you  continue  the  pecuniary  support 
of  such  missionaries  and  such  Churches  ?  We  have  a 
right,  and  the  public  have  a  right,  to  look  for  a  reply 
to  these  questions. 

The  third  paragraph  above  quoted  from  the  40th 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  contains  their  full  au¬ 
thentication  of  their  pro-slavery  missionaries  among 
the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws  as  ministers. 


15 


These  missionaries  had  shown  as  much  complaisance 
in  regard  to  the  suggested  ‘  opinions  ’  of  the  Board  as 
could  reasonably  be  expected.  They  had,  in  an  early 
stage  of  the  controversy,  yielded  so  far  as  to  discon¬ 
tinueslaveholding  in  their  own  persons,  and  to  abridge, 
at  considerable  sacrifice  of  personal  convenience,  the 
amount  of  their  hiring  of  slave  labor.  But  when  it 
came  to  having  their  own  peculiar  battery  of  pious 
talk  turned  against  themselves — when  the  very  bul¬ 
letins  that  contained  the  allowance  of  their  siavehold- 
ing  Churches  were  pieced  out  with  whole  pages  of 
unpleasant  reflections  upon  the  character  and  influ¬ 
ence  of  slavery — when  the  very  men  whom  they  knew 
to  have  approved  the  beginning  and  the  continuance 
of  their  pro-slavery  work  now  pointed  disparaging 
‘  opinions,  suggestions  and  arguments  ’  at  them  before 
the  eyes  of  men — they  could  not  bear  it !  Human 
nature  could  hardly  be  expected  to  bear  it !  So,  upon 
the  point  that  slavery,  however  bad  it  might  be,  was 
good  enough  to  be  received  into  their  Churches,  they 
made  a  firm  stand,  taking  the  ground  (as  we  have 
shown  by  their  own  words,  written  in  1848,  and  quot¬ 
ed  at  the  commencement  of  this  article) — 

1.  That  slaveholding  was  authorized  by  the  New 
Testament. 

2.  That,  therefore,  they  were  fully  determined  not 
to  make  slaveholding  a  ground  either  for  the  expul¬ 
sion  of  a  church-member  or  the  rejection  of  a  candi¬ 
date. 

3.  That  they  would  not  e^^rcise  discipline  in  the 
Church  either  against  the  general  buying  and  selling 
of  slaves,  or  the  sale  of  children  away  from  their 
parents. 


16 


4.  Th^at  they  would  not  adoi)t  any  train  of  meas¬ 
ures  which  should  even  tend  ‘  in  the  end '  to  overthrow 
slavery. 

The  missionaries,  we  have  said,  planted  themselves 
firmly  upon  this  ground.  But  since  the  Board — while 
allowing  them  to  retain  this  position,  and  to  shelter 
slavery  in  the  Church  as  thoroughly  as  they  pleased 
— continued  the  practice  of  using  pious  quasi  anti¬ 
slavery  talk  in  their  Annual  Reports,  six  of  the  seven 
Choctaw  missionaries,  in  November,  1855,  sent  in  a 
letter  of  resignation.  The  Prudential  Committee  of 
the  Board,  having  really  no  objection  to  the  position 
and  course  of  policy  of  the  missionaries,  desired  them 
to  recall  their  letter  of  resignation  ;  and  to  this  request 
the  six  missionaries  replied,  under  date  of  Lenox, 
Choctaw  Nation,  Sept.  6th,  1856.  The  whole  letter 
is  given  in  the  New  York  Observer  of  Dec.  2d,  1858. 
After  rehearsing  their  pro-slavery  ground,  the  six 
missionaries  say  : 

‘  If,  with  the  foregoing  views — which  are  known  by 
the  'people  among  whom  we  labor — the  Prudential  Com¬ 
mittee  should  deem  it  wise  to  continue  our  support, 
we  are  willing  to  try  to  remain  in  their  service.  Ac¬ 
cordingly,  we  have  estimated  our  expenses  for  the  en¬ 
suing  year.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Committee 
should  not  think  it  best  to  retain  us,  we  shall  not  ex¬ 
pect  them  to  grant  us  the  estimates.’ 

The  Observer  gives  the  signatures  to  this  document 
as  follows — 

C.  Kingsbury,  C.  C.  Copeland, 

C.  Byington,  O.  P.  Stark, 

E.  Hotchkin,  J.  Edwards, 

and  it  adds : 


17 


‘  The  Prudential  Committee  took  the  subject  into 
consideration,  and,  with  this  letter  before  therriy  made  the 
usual  appropriations.  The  missionaries,  being  thus 
left  at  liberty  to  pursue  their  work  in  their  own  way, 
have  continued  to  prosecute  their  labors  with  their 
usual  success.’ 

The  statement  of  this  transaction  in  the  succeeding 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  (for  1856)  illustrates  so 
perfectly  the  pious  trickery  of  reservation,  misrepre¬ 
sentation  and  insinuation  with  which  these  documents 
are  made  up,  that  we  quote  it  in  full  from  the  195th 
page : — 

‘In  the  month  of  November,  four  brethren  of  this 
mission  forwarded  a  letter  to  the  Missionary  House, 
expressing  their  wish  to  be  released  from  their  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  Board.  The  Prudential  Committee, 
conceiving  that  these  brethren  had  misapprehended 
the  true  state  of  the  relations  existing  between  them 
and  the  Board,  directed  an  answer  to  this  letter  to  be 
prepared  and  forwarded  by  the  Secretary  having 
charge  of  the  correspondence  with  the  Indian  mis¬ 
sions.  A  reply  to  this  communication  has  recently 
been  received,  in  which  the  missionaries  intimated  a 
willingness  to  continue  their  relations  to  the  Board, 
awaiting  the  issues  of  further  correspondence.  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  Committee  have  informed 
them  that,  upon  receiving  their  estimates,  which  they 
propose  forwarding,  for  the  current  year,  the  cus¬ 
tomary  appropriations  will  be  made.  The  Committee 
apprehend  that  a  publication  of  the  correspondence 
pending  at  the  present  time  would  be  detrimental  to 
the  interests  of  the  mission  ;  experience  having  shown 
that,  while  negotiations  are  in  progress  between  the 
Committee  and  missionaries,  a  public  discussion  of  the 
subject  tends  to  hinder  the  parties  from  coming  to  a 
harmonious  result.’ 


18 


Thus,  in  the  ingenious  phraseology  of  this  Report, 
the  wish  of  the  Board  (like  that  of  the  Tract  Society, 
and  of  the  ‘business  men’s  prayer-meetings’)  to  let 
the  subject  of  slavery  ‘  rest  without  noise,’  is  set  forth 
as  an  apprehension  that  publicity  would  be  ‘  detri¬ 
mental  to  the  interests  of  the  mission  ’  ;  the  six  mis¬ 
sionaries  whose  names  are  signed  to  the  letter  publish¬ 
ed  by  the  Observer  are  compressed  into  ^four  brethren 
of  this  mission  ’ ;  the  threat  of  these  ‘  brethren  ’  that 
they  would  leave  the  Board,  unless  its  quasi  anti-sla¬ 
very  talk  should  be  counterbalanced  by  a  distinctly 
renewed  license  to  their  pro-slavery  position,  becomes, 
by  this  process  of  ‘  free  translation,’  a  conception  of 
the  Prudential  Committee  that  these  brethren  ‘  had 
misapprehended  the  true  state  of  the  relations  exist¬ 
ing  between  them  and  the  Board’ ;  and  finally,  that 
yielding  of  the  Board  to  the  missionaries’  demand 
which  closed  the  negotiation  is  felicitously  veiled  by 
the  phrases — ‘  the  missionaries  intimated  a  willingness 
to  continue  their  relations  to  the  Board,’  and  ‘under 
these  circumstances  the  Committee  have  informed 
them  that  the  customary  appropriations  will  be  made.’ 

In  the  Annual  Report  for  1857,  the  very  year  after 
this  renewed  settlement  of  affairs  upon  a  pro-slavery 
basis,  the  Committee  say  respecting  these  missions  : 

‘  We  cannot  too  highly  appreciate  the  perseverance, 
the  faithfulness^  and  the  cheerful  and  self-denying 
labors  of  our  missionaries.  The  Committee  see  dan¬ 
gers  threatening  ;  but  they  are  of  such  a  nature  as  can 
be  warded  off  only  by  divine  interposition.  They  see 
NO  CHANGE  TO  RECOMMEND,  UnlcSS  it  be  tO  SUggCSt  tO 

our  brethren  the  inquiry  whether  there  may  not  be 


19 


more  attention  directed  to  the  training  up  of  natives 
for  teachers  and  pastors,’ 

This  is  as  if  a  Temperance  Committee,  being  called 
to  report  on  the  state  of  the  various  eating-houses  in 
this  city,  should  gravely  state  that  ‘They  see  no 
change  to  recommend,  unless  to  suggest  the  inquiry 
whether  there  may  not  be  more  attention  directed  to 
the  training  up  of  young  men  for  bar-keepers  ’  ! 

Lastly,  in  the  49th  Annual  lleport,  published  near 
the  close  of  1858,  the  Board  still  allow  the  complicity 
of  the  missionaries  with  slavery  to  pass  without  either 
rebuke  for  the  past  or  prohibition  for  the  future.  But 
the  manner  of  allowing  an  undisturbed  continuance  to 
this  pro-slavery  position — the  method  by  which  they 
let  the  subject  alone,  in  the  very  act  of  seeming  to  at¬ 
tend  to  it  and  regulate  it — is  so  peculiar,  and  so  illus¬ 
trative  of  the  indirection  with  which  this  whole  matter 
of  slavery  has  been  managed  by  the  Board,  as  to  be 
worthy  of  careful  scrutiny. 

In  the  first  place,  the  lleport  proper  of  the  Pru¬ 
dential  Committee  (extending  from  p.  23  to  p.  147  of 
the  Annual  Report  of  the  Board)  contains  not  one 
word  about  slavery,  good,  bad  or  indifferent,  though 
it  certifies,  in  general,  the  ‘fidelity’  of  the  missiona¬ 
ries,  and  gives  a  particular  detail  of  efforts  and  suc¬ 
cesses  in  the  cause  of  ‘  Temperance.’  Moreover,  the 
Resolutions  introduced,  (^p.  18)  in  behalf  of  the  Pru¬ 
dential  Committee,  by  Rev.  Dr.  S.  L.  Pomroy,  one  of 
the  Secretaries,  contain  not  the  slightest  allusion  to 
slavery. 

The  preceding  portion  of  the  Forty-Ninth  Annual 
Report  (pp.  3 — 22)  is  occupied  by  ‘  Minutes  of  the 


20 


Annual  Meeting  ’  of  the  Board,  and  on  pages  16  and 
17  we  find  the  following  report  of  a  special  commit¬ 
tee,  to  whom  had  been  referred  that  portion  of  the 
Report  of  the  Prudential  Committee  which  related  to 
the  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  Indians  : — 

‘  The  committee  to  whom  was  referred  that  part  of 
the  Annual  Report  entitled  ‘  North  American  Indi¬ 
ans,  No.  1,’  have  had  the  same  under  consideration, 
and  respectfully  report  s 

That  the  missions  included  in  the  document  which 
was  referred  to  this  committee,  are  the  mission  to  the 
Dakotas  and  those  to  the  partially  civilized  nations 
in  the  Indian  territory. 

At  Hartford,  in  1854,  the  views  of  the  Board  were 
clearly  and  definitely  expressed  in  regard  to  certain 
laws  and  acts  of  the  Choctaw  government,  which 
were  designed  to  restrain  the  liberty  of  the  missiona¬ 
ries  as  teachers  of  God’s  word.  All  the  action  of  the 
Board  since  that  date,  and,  so  far  as  we  are  informed, 
the  action  of  the  Prudential  Committee  also,  has  been 
in  conformity  with  the  principles  then  put  upon  rec¬ 
ord.  (a) 

Your  committee  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  po¬ 
sition  of  our  missionaries  among  the  Choctaws  is  one 
of  much  difficulty  and  peril.  Among  the  various  re¬ 
ligious  bodies  in  the  States  nearest  to  the  Choctaw  na¬ 
tion,  there  has  been,  as  is  well  known,  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  a  lamentable  defection  from  some 
of  the  first  and  most  elementary  ideas  of  Christian 
morality,  insomuch  that  Christianity  has  been  repre¬ 
sented  as  the  warrant  for  a  system  of  slavery  which 
offends  the  moral  sense  of  the  Christian  world,  and 
Christ  has  thereby  been  represented  as  the  minister 
of  sin.  Our  brethren  among  the  Choctaws  are  in 
ecclesiastical  relations  with  religious  bodies  in  the  ad¬ 
joining  States,  the  States  from  which  the  leading 
Choctaws  are  deriving  their  notions  of  civilization  and 
of  government.  In  those  neighboring  Stales,  and 


21 


in  the  Choctaw  nation,  the  missionaries  are  watched 
by  the  upholders  of  slavery,  ‘who  are  ready  to  seize 
upon  the  first  opportunity  of  expelling  them  from  the 
field  in  which  they  have  so  long  been  laboring.  By 
the  enemies  of  the  Board  and  of  the  missionaries,  our 
brethren  are  charged  with  what  are  called,  in  those 
regions,  the  dangerous  doctrines  of  abolitionism.  At 
the  same  time  they  are  charged,  in  other  quarters, 
with  the  guilt  of  silence  in  the  presence  of  a  great 
and  hideous  wickedness,  (b) 

It  seems,  to  your  committee,  desirable  that  the 
Board  should  be  relieved,  as  early  as  possible,  from 
the  unceasing  embarrassments  and  perplexities  con¬ 
nected  with  the  missions  in  the  Indian  territory. 
Surely  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when  the  Choctaw 
and  Cherokee  Indians  and  half-breeds  will  stand  in 
precisely  the  same  relations  to  the  missionary  work 
with  the  white  people  of  the  adjacent  States ;  and 
when  the  churches  there  will  he  the  subjects  of  home 
missionary  more  properly  than  of  foreign  missionary 
patronage.’  (c) 

On  the  whole,  your  committee,  w'ith  these  sugges¬ 
tions,  recommend  that  the  Report  of  the  Prudential 
Committee,  as  referred  to  them,  be  accepted  and  ap¬ 
proved.  (d) 

The  chairman  of  the  special  committee  which  made 
this  Report  was  Rev.  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  of  New 
Haven.  Since  he  had  been  active  in  complaints  of 
the  pro-slavery  position  of  the  American  Tract  Socie¬ 
ty,  he  seems  to  have  thought  it  necessary  to  mention 
the  subject  of  slavery  here.  To  what  purpose,  and 
with  how  much  effect,  it  is  mentioned,  a  little  exam¬ 
ination  will  show. 

The  paragraph  marked  (a)  seems  (does  it  not  ?) 
to  express  satisfaction  in  the  action  of  the  Board  at 
Hartford,  in  1854.  What  was  that  action"^ 


22 


On  turning  to  the  Annual  Report  for  1854,  we 
find  a  long  special  report,  presented  by  Dr.  Pom- 
roy  (pp.  25 — 32)  containing  not  one  word  about  slave- 
ry. 

We  find  also  (p.  24)  the  following  resolution  (re¬ 
ported  by  a  committee  of  which  Dr.  Bacon  was  a 
member)  adopted  by  the  Board : 

‘  Resolved,  That  the  Board  acknowledge,  with  grat^ 
itude  to  God,  the  wisdom  and  fidelity  with  which,  so 
far  as  appears  from  the  documents  submitted  to  them, 
the  Prudential  Committee  are  advising  and  direct¬ 
ing  the  missionaries  among  the  Choctaws,  in  conformi¬ 
ty  with  the  principles  asserted  by  them  in  their  corres¬ 
pondence  with  those  missions,  reported  to  the  Board 
in  1848.’ 

We  find  also,  in  the  official  ‘Remarks  upon  the 
Meeting,’  (p.  45)  this  statement  respecting  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  above  resolution  : — 

‘  The  debate  which  grew  out  of  the  Report  of  the 
Choctaw  mission,  aw’akened  a  general  and  absorbing 
interest.  The  question  was  ultimately  narrowed  to  a 
single  point,  namely,  ‘  Shall  the  general  principles 
of  the  letter  addressed  by  the  Prudential  Committee 
to  the  Choctaw  mission,  in  1848,  receive  the  express 
sanction  of  the  Board  ?  ’  It  was  admitted  that  these 
principles  had  received  an  implied  sanction.  In  fact, 
there  could  have  been  no  controversy  on  this  point. 
A  committee  on  this  letter  and  other  documents  rec¬ 
ommended  to  the  meeting  of  1848,  ‘  that  the  whole 
subject  should  be  left  for  the  present  ’  ‘  in  the  hands 
of  the  Prudential  Committee  ;  ’  which  recommenda¬ 
tion  was  adopted  by  the  Board.  Nor  w'as  this  all. 
The  Prudential  Committee  were  all  re-elected  at  that 
meeting  ;  and  they  have  been  re-chosen  annually,  ex¬ 
cept  in  case  of  death  or  removal,  from  that  time  to 


23 


this.  They  have  felt,  therefore,  that  their  views 
must  be  considered  as  having  the  implied  sanction 
of  the  Board  ;  and  they  have  acted  accordingly.’ 

Both  these  documents,  the  Besolution  and  the  Re¬ 
marks,  refer  us  back  to  the  action  of  the  Prudential 
Committee  in  1848.  To  find  out  what  these  mean^ 
therefore,  and  to  find  out  what  the  Rev.  Leonard  Ba¬ 
con  means  by  his  approval  of  the  action  of  the  Board 
at  Hartford^  in  1854,  w^e  must  turn  back  to  the  An¬ 
nual  Report  for  1848. 

The  Report  for  1848  is  the  verj’’  one  from  which 
we  have  quoted  at  the  commencement  of  this  arti¬ 
cle,  containing,  1.  the  letters  of  the  Cherokee  and 
Choctaw  missionaries,  declaring  their  settled  deter¬ 
mination  still  to  admit  slaveholders  to  their  church¬ 
es,  and,  2.  the  temporizing  reply  of  the  Prudential 
Committee  through  Mr.  Secretary  Treat,  respecting 
which  a  disclaimer  (above  inserted)  was  placed  in  the 
next  Annual  Report,  saying  that  Mr.  Treat’s  letter 
‘  expressed  opinions^  but  not  decisions  or  instructions’’ — 
and  that  ‘  This  distinction  is  vital  to  the  proper  under¬ 
standing  of  Mr.  Treat’s  letter.’ 

That  course  of  policy,  therefore,  of  the  Board,  which 
Dr.  Bacon  seems  to  approve  in  the  paragraph  marked 
(a),  is  a  systematic  allowance  that  their  missionaries 
may  receive  slaveholders,  as  Christians,  into  their 
churches,  pleading  the  Bible  as  their  warrant  for  this 
most  efficient  support  of  slavery. 

Dr.  Bacon’s  paragraph  marked  (b)  presents  as  an 
excuse  for  the  missionaries  that  which  is  really  an  ad¬ 
ditional  crime  on  their  part — namely,  the  maintenance 
of  fraternal  ecclesiastical  relations  with  the  slavehold- 


24 


ing  churches  of  Texas,  Arkansas  and  Missouri.  It 
further  presents  that  dislike  of  the  missionaries  which 
is  undoubtedly  felt  by  the  profane,  intemperate  anj 
brutal  propagandists  of  slavery  in  those  States,  as  pre¬ 
sumptive  evidence  that  those  missionaries  hold  a  right 
position  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 

Thus  far  in  his  Report,  Dr.  Bacon  has  proposed  to 
the  Board  no  action  whatever  to  check  the  fraterniza¬ 
tion  of  their  missionaries  and  mission  churches  with 
slavery.  He  proposes  none  in  the  whole  course  of 
that  document.  But,  (amazing  as  it  may  seem  in  a 
man  who  is  reputed  to  be  farther  advanced  towards 
anti-slavery  than  the  great  majority  of  the  churches) 
in  paragraph  (c)  he  anticipates  with  pleasure,  as  the 
means  of  relieving  the  Board  from  the  embarrassments 
and  perplexities  which  a  pro^slavery  policj’^has  brought 
upon  it,  the  speedy  application  of  these  converted 
Cherokees  and  Choctaws  for  admission  to  the  Union 
as  a  slave  State,  the  success  of  which  would,  as  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  course,  transfer  them  from  the  Foreign  Mission¬ 
ary  to  the  Home  Missionary  department;  and  he 
closes,  in  paragraph  (d"),  by  recommending  to  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  the  Board  that  Report  of  the  Prudential 
Committee,  which  utterly  ignores  the  subject  of  sla¬ 
very. 

Such  is  the  position  of  the  American  Board  of  Com¬ 
missioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  And  such  it  has  per¬ 
manently  been,  from  the  commencement  of  its  missions 
among  the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws,  to  the  present 
moment.— c.  k.  w. 


mOi 


/ 


f(eu/  Jestam^pt 
Staijdpolpt  of  /I\i55ioQS. 


■;  V.  / 


y_ 


i  ;  '  '  !■' »  i 


REV.  Ai  B. 


SIMPSON 


■ 


THE  CHRISTIAN  ALLIANCE  PUB  (XL 

692  Eighth  Avenue, 

New  York. 


THfi  NEW  TESTAMENT  STANDPOINT 
OF  MISSIONS. 


BY  THE  EDITOR. 


^  Show  the  house  to  the  house  of  Israel,  and 
let  them  measure  the  pattern,  and  if  they  be 
ashamed  of  all  that  they  have  done,  show  them 
the  form  of  the  house  and  the  fashion  thereof, 
and  the  goings  out  thereof,  and  the  comings  in 
thereof,  and  all  the  forms  thereof,  and  all  the 
ordinances  thereof,  and  all  the  laws  thereof.” 
Ezekiel  xliii.:  10, 11. 

This  was  God’s  command  respecting 
the  temple  which  is  yet  to  rise  from 
the  wreck  of  ages  on  Mount  Moriah 
once  more.  Its  deepest  significance,  how¬ 
ever,  is  to  be  found  in  the  spiritual  temple 
of  which  that  was  but  a  type,  that  great 
house  of  God’s  building  which  consists  of 
ransomed  souls,  and  is  built  on  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  Christ  Himself. 

This  house  has  a  divine  pattern,  just  as 
the  tabernacle  of  old  was  to  be  constructed 


2 


strictly  according  to  the  pattern  that  was 
shown  to  Moses  on  the  Mount,  so  the 
church  of  Christ  has  a  divine  plan,  and 
should  be  in  every  particular  constructed 
accordingly.  The  failure  to  do  this  has 
been  the  cause  of  all  the  apostacies,  de¬ 
clensions  and  mistakes  of  the  past  eighteen 
centuries,  and  is  the  reason  to-day  that 
the  heathen  world  is  lying  in  darkness  and 
crying  to  God  against  the  unfaithfulness 
of  His  people. 

Let  us  look  a  little  at  this  plan  as  Christ 
Himself  has  unfolded  it,  especially  with 
reference  to  the  evangelization  of  the 
world. 

1.  The  first  step  in  the  work  of  the 
world’s  evangelization  is  to  look  intelli¬ 
gently  at  the  field.  And  so  the  Master 
says  to  us,  John  iv:  35,  “Lift  up  your 
eyes  and  look  on  the  fields,  for  they  are 
white  already  to  harvest.” 

An  intelligent  conception  of  the  needs 
of  the  world  is  the  foundation  of  all  true 


3 


Christian  work;  bat  how  little  Christians, 
as  a  rule,  know  or  even  think  about  the 
great  outlying  world.  How  many  even 
in  this  congregation  could  give  an  intelli¬ 
gent  account  of  the  needs  of  India,  Africa 
or  China  I  Our  own  little  family  circle 
or  our  church  society  absorbs  our  interest 
and  is  more  to  us  than  the  millions  who 
are  perishing  abroad.  Our  eyes  are  so 
limited  that  we  cannot  see  beyond  the 
bounds  of  our  own  denomination,  and 
millions  and  millions  of  dollars  are  being 
wasted  in  multiplying  churches,  simply 
because  we  feel  that  we  should  spread  our 
particular  sect,  when  whole  nations  are 
without  even  a  single  voice  to  proclaim 
the  story  of  Christ  and  His  salvation. 

Lift  up  your  eyes,  beloved,  upon  the 
300,000,000  of  China,  the  285,000  000  of 
India,  the  250,000,000  of  Africa,  the  40,- 
000,000  of  Japan,  all  in  heathen  darkness. 
Lift  up  your  eyes  upon  the  80,000  min¬ 
isters  of  the  gospel  in  America,  and  the 


4 


more  than  1,000,000  of  Christian  workers 
for  60,000,000  of  people,  and  then  think 
of  one  missionary  for  every  400,000 
heathen,  and  ask  if  this  is  right,  if  this 
is  God’s  plan  for  His  house. 

And  then,  the  need  is  an  immediate 
one.  Say  not,  “There  are  yet  four 
months,  and  then  cometh  harvest.”  The 
present  generation  must  save  the  present 
generation.  A  celebrated  missionary  * 
said  here,  the  other  day,  that  it  would 
take  three  or  four  generations  to  reach 
the  people  of  Africa,  and  it  could  only  be 
done  through  the  children.  Our  business 
is  with  the  present,  generation.  A  thou¬ 
sand  million  souls  must  be  saved  within 
twenty-five  years,  or  they  never  can  be 
saved. 

The  fields  are  white,  the  doors  are  open, 
the  needs  are  uigent.  Let  us  understand 
them.  Let  us  study  mii^sionary  geography 
under  the  bumiuig  light  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  God  will  so  write  on  our 


5 


hearts  the  names  of  these  peoples,  and 
tribes  and  tongues,  that  we  cannot  rest 
until  we  have  gone  to  them  with  the 
message  of  salvation. 

2.  The  second  step  in  the  evangelisation 
of  the  world  is  prayer.  Luke  i:  2, 
“  Therefore  said  He  unto  them,  The  har¬ 
vest  truly  is  great,  but  the  laborers  are 
few:  pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest  that  He  would  send  forth  labor¬ 
ers  into  His  harvest.” 

If  we  look  out  on  the  fields,  the  most 
ardent  and  hopeful  heart  comes  back 
from  the  vision  utterly  discouraged,  as 
we  look  at  the  need  and  the  apparent 
resources.  A  view  of  the  heathen  field, 
and  the  results  even  of  one  hundred 
years  of  missions,  while  it  has  many 
gleams  of  encouragement,  is,  upon  the 
whole,  heart-breaking.  Two  millions  of 
souls  have  been  saved  from  heathenism, 
but  two  hundred  millions  more  of  heathen 


6 


are  to  be  found  in  the  world  to-day  than 
a  century  ago. 

As  we  look  at  the  story  of  the  early 
century,  it  seems  so  different.  In  a  single 
generation  Paul  and  his  associates  had 
planted  the  gospel  successfully  in  almost 
every  land.  How  is  this  ?  The  answer 
is  very  simple.  The  Almighty  God  was 
in  their  work;  there  was  no  machinery, 
there  were  no  societies,  no  great  mission¬ 
ary  offerings  nor  boards,  no  railroads, 
steamboats,  telegraphs;  and  yet  God  made 
everything  tell,  and  in  a  single  mission¬ 
ary  tour  Paul  was  able  to  plant  the  gospel 
in  the  whole  of  Greece,  and  lay  the  foun¬ 
dations  of  mighty  churches  for  the  com¬ 
ing  centuries. 

We  have  seen  a  few  touches  in  our  own 
time  of  God’s  mighty  power  in  the  mis¬ 
sion  field.  The  story  of  Madagascar,  the 
story  of  Titus  Coan  in  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  the  story  of  Celebes  and  Figi,the 
story  of  Arnot  in  Africa,  and  Paton  in 


7 


the  New  Hebrides,  are  apostolic  in  their 
marvelous  power  and  glory.  They  are 
types  of  what  God  would  do  and  can  do 
if  we  will  let  Him. 

How  is  it  to  come  about  ?  By  a  min¬ 
istry  of  prayer.  The  world  is  to  be 
evangelized  by  the  church  on  her  knees. 
God  is  to  take  this  work  in  hand,  and  we 
are  to  recognize  Him  in  it,  and,  when  His 
supernatural  touch  is  fully  realized,  na¬ 
tions  will  be  born  in  a  day. 

Beloved,  let  us  pray,  and  let  all  our 
missionary  work  be  divine. 

3.  The  third  stage  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  plan  of  missions  was  the  sending 
out  of  the  twelve  and  the  seventy.  The 
sending  of  the  ^twelve  was  separate  and 
can  scarcely  be  called  a  precedent ;  but 
the  sending  of  the  seventy  was  undoubt¬ 
edly  meant  to  be  a  pattern  of  the  work 
and  the  workers  of  the  coming  centuries, 
because,  as  He  sent  them.  He  commanded 
them  to  pray  that  others  likewise  should 


8 


be  sent  forth,  and  they  were,  therefore, 
but  the  pioneers  of  the  mighty  army  who 
were  to  succeed  them  in  the  coming  ages. 
It  is  very  beautiful  to  notice  that  they 
were  to  precede  Him.  They  were  to  go 
to  every  city  whither  He  Himself  should 
come.  And  so  we  in  our  missionary 
work,  but  go  before  Him,  and  He  will 
follow  us  and  follow  up  our  work,  and  in 
a  little  while  He  will  come  in  person.  We 
are  the  pioneers  of  the  Lord’s  coming. 

These  early  missionaries  were  to  be 
self-denying  and  simple  in  their  lives. 
They  were  patterns  of  all  true  mission¬ 
aries.  They  were  not  to  carry  any  need 
less  baggage  nor  look  for  earthly  luxuries 
and  comforts.  They  were  light  infantry 
intended  to  rapidly  itinerate  and  cover 
the  land  with  the  message  of  His  coming. 

Oh,  that  all  our  missionaries  were  like 
them!  They  were  to  go  two  and  two, 
and  the  Lord  still  sends  His  disciples  in 
company ;  and  they  were  to  go  armed 


9 


with  the  power  to  tread  on  serpents  and 
scorpions,  and  on  all  the  power  of  the 
enemy  ;  and  yet  to  count  this  much  less 
than  the  fact  that  their  names  were  writ¬ 
ten  in  heaven. 

4.  The  next  step  is  the  great  public 
commission  which  He  gave  after  His  res¬ 
urrection,  ‘'Go  ye  and  disciple  all  na¬ 
tions,”  Matt,  xxviii:  19. 

This  was  His  great  manifesto  as  a  king. 
He  was  about  to  ascend  to  His  throne 
and  He  proclaimed  as  He  did  so,  that 
“All  power  was  given  to  Him  both  in 
heaven  and  in  earth.”  And,  therefore. 
He  sends  forth  His  ambassadors  to  the 
nations  of  the  earth  to  call  them  to  His 
kingdom,  and  to  carry  to  them  His  com¬ 
mands,  and  teach  them  to  observe  these 
commands  until  the  end.  The  promise 
with  which  He  accompanies  it  means 
more  than  His  personal  presence  in  the 
hearts  of  His  people.  It  is  the  promise 
of  His  providential  presence  in  a  special 


10 


sense  and  manner  as  the  one  to  whom  all 
power  is  given  in  heaven  and  in  earth. 
It  is  a  presence  which  carries  with  it  all 
the  omnipotence  of  the  Godhead,  and  it 
is  a  promise  that  none  can  claim  in  its 
fullness  unless  they  are  obeying  the  com¬ 
mand  that  precedes  it. 

This  great  commission  has  never  yet 
been  fully  realized.  It  contemplates  a 
world-wide  evangelization  so  glorious  and 
complete  that  no  nation,  nor  tribe,  nor 
tongue  shall  be  overlooked.  It  calls  us, 
especially,  to  look  at  the  nations  rather 
than  the  individuals  of  the  race,  and  to 
see  that  the  unevangelized  peoples  are 
the  first  objects  of  our  care,  and  never  to 
rest  until  this  glorious  gospel  shall  have 
been  proclaimed  in  every  tongue  spoken 
by  man,  and  from  every  nation  there 
shall  be  some  representatives  to  herald 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man. 

6.  The  personal  commission.  Markxvi: 
15,  16,  “Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 


11 


preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  He 
that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be 
saved ;  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned.”  This  is  His  commission  to 
each  individual  to  go  to  individuals.  The 
former  is  a  commission  to  nations,  but 
this  is  to  persons.  Every  member  of  the 
human  family  is  to  receive  an  offer  of 
salvation  and  every  one  has  an  equal 
^ight  to  know  the  way  of  life.  This  is 
not  a  commission  to  the  Church,  but  to 
each  one  of  us.  You  have  as  much  right 
to  go  in  obedience  to  this  as  I.  The 
world  will  never  be  evangelized  until 
every  individual  Christian  recognizes  his 
personal  call.  Each  of  us  has  been  called 
already,  and  we  must  give  some  answer ; 
and  if  we  cannot  go  personally,  we  must 
see  that  some  one  goes  to  represent  us  as 
far  as  it  lies  in  us. 

This  is  the  most  solemn  and  searching 
word  on  the  subject  of  missions  in  the 
Bible.  It  will  meet  each  one  of  us  on 


12 

the  judgment  day  laden  with  the  blood  ol 
souls. 

Brother  I  sister !  as  you  read  this  page 
it  speaks  to  you,  and  neither  I  nor  any 
church  on  earth  can  absolve  you  from 
this  eternal  obligation  nor  excuse  you  from 
your  duty.  When  God  thus  calls  a  man 
he  is  bound  to  go,  and  if  all  the  Boards  on 
earth  refuse  him,  God  will  open  some  way 
for  him. 

6.  The  divine  order  of  the  gospel  mes- 
sage.  Luke  xiv:  16  to  24.  The  parable 
of  the  great  supper  is  Christ’s  plan  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  The  first 
invited  guests  represent  the  ordinary 
hearers  of  the  gospel.  God  sends  the 
message  to  them,  but  they  are  too  busy 
with  the  world  and  their  pleasures  to  go. 

Then  the  second  call  is  given :  “Go  out 
into  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city.” 
This  is  to  the  neglected  at  home.  This  is 
the  work  of  rescue  missions  and  home 
missions ;  it  is  extremely  imnortant.  but 


13 


it  is  not  all.  There  is  a  third  call :  ‘‘Go 
out  into  the  hedges,  highways,  to  the 
outcasts,  to  the  people  beyond  the  pale 
of  the  church,  to  the  heathen  and  the 
lost,”  and  this  is  what  we  are  seeking  to 
do.  God  requires  no  man  to  spend  all 
his  life  in  reiterating  the  gospel  to  the 
people  that  will  not  receive  it.  He  gives 
every  one  a  chance ;  then  He  would  have 
us  pass  on.  The  mistake  of  the  Church 
has  been  that  she  has  sat  down  to  con¬ 
vert  the  whole  Church  and  the  whole 
country,  and  it  is  neglecting  the  great 
outlying  masses  that  have  never  had  the 
chance  to  hear  the  gospel. 

7.  The  enduement  of  power  for  mis¬ 
sionary  work.  Acts  i:  8.  “Ye  shall  re¬ 
ceive  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  com¬ 
ing  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all 
Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  ut¬ 
termost  part  of  the  earth.” 

The  mighty  undertaking  which  the 


14 


♦ 


Master  was  committing  to  their  hands 
was  beyond  the  power  of  man,  and  there¬ 
fore  He  provided  for  them  the  infinite 
resources  of  the  Holy  Hhost.  He  was  to 
convince  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteous¬ 
ness,  and  of  judgment,  and  so  He  did 
accompany  them  in  their  ministry  with 
stupendous  power  and  astonishing  re¬ 
sults.  One  sermon  on  the  day  of  Pente¬ 
cost  brought  thousands  to  conviction.  In 
a  single  missionary  journey  the  Apostle 
Paul  established  Christianity  through  the 
province  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in  another 
tour  the  great  and  civilized  communities 
of  Greece  were  led  to  accept  the  truth, 
and  powerful  churches  established  in  all 
their  leading  cities.  He  tells  us  how  in 
Thessalonica  the  truth  was  proclaimed 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
heaven,  and  multitudes  turned  from  idols 
to  serve  the  living  and  true  God  and  wait 
for  His  Son  from  heaven.  Heari;s  of  men 
were  stirred  and  persuaded.  PIven  in 


15 


Corinth  he  reminds  them  how  his  word 
was  not  of  excellent  speech  and  man’s 
wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  spirit 
and  of  power. 

This  same  mighty  power  is  as  necessary 
to  day  in  the  perfection  of  ecclesiastical 
machinery.  We  are  in  danger  of  forget¬ 
ting  it.  Modern  schools,  medical  mis¬ 
sions,  industrial  teaching,  and  a  thousand 
other  things  can  never  take  the  place  of 
the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the 
fullness  of  this  power  will  never  be  known 
except  in  connection  with  the  world’s 
evangelization.  It  is  for  this  that  Christ 
especially  promisf^d  it.  As  we  seek  it, 
that  we  may  be  witness  unto  Him,  we 
may  claim  it  without  limitation,  and  the 
more  wide  our  witness  bearing,  the  more 
glorious  the  power  will  be.  A  mighty 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  all  the 
machinery  on  the  mission  field  could 
bring  the  world’s  evangelization  in  a  few 
years. 


In  the  vision  of  the  prophet,  there  lay 
a  mighty  army  in  the  plain  that  had  just 
been  clothed  with  flesh  and  skin  and  had 
bhe  forms  of  men,  but  they  were  dead. 
Suddenly  there  came  a  call,  Come 
forth,  oh,  breath,  from  the  four  winds  and 
breathe  upon  these  slain  that  they  may 
live,”  and  lo  !  as  the  rushing  wind  swept 
from  every  side  and  thrilled  those  passive 
forms  with  life,  they  sprang  to  their  feet 
and  stood  in  ranks,  an  exceeding  great 
army.  So  to  day,  seven  or  eight  thou¬ 
sand  men  and  women  have  already  step¬ 
ped  outirv^ontof  the  armies  of  the  living 
God,  and  are  holding  the  outposts  around 
the  globe,  while  back  of  them  lie  millions 
and  millions  not  more  than  half  alive, 
languidly  goingthrough  thef  orms  of  battle. 

Oh,  for  the  trump  of  God  to  wake  the 
dead !  Oh,  for  the  breath  of  power  to 
rouse  the  mighty  host  I  Oh,  for  a  thou¬ 
sand  missionaries  in  every  land,  all  alive 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  I  From  the  workers 


17 


the  field,  from  the  native  converts,  from 
all  the  little  bands  pressed  and  depressed 
with  the  weight  of  Satan’s  power  that 
fills  the  very  air  and  paralyzes  their 
spiritual  energies,  there  comes  this  one 
cry  above  all  others,  “  Pray  for  us  that 
we  may  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.” 
Let  us  pray  for  them,  and  let  us  impart 
it  to  them  from  overflowing  hearts.  Let 
the  mighty  baptism  of  a  missionary  Pen¬ 
tecost  begin  at  home  and  sweep  in  waves 
of  fire  till  it  girdle  the  earth  with  the 
mighty  evangel,  and  roll  on  to  meet  the 
armies  of  the  Advent. 

8.  The  special  and  supernatural  signs 
which  the  Lord  has  promised  shall  follow 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Mark  xvi : 
17.  “  These  signs  shall  follow  them  that 

believe.  In  my  name  shall  they  cast  out 
devils ;  they  shall  speak  with  new 
tongues ;  they  shall  take  up  serpents ; 
and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing  it 
shall  not  hurt  them  ;  they  shall  lay  hands 


18 


on  the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover.  And 
they  went  forth  everywhere  and  preached 
the  gospel,  the  Lord  working  with  them 
and  confirming  the  word  with  signs  foL 
lowing.” 

This  is  something  that  is  included  in 
the  promise  of  Acts  i :  8,  and  yet  is  a  dis¬ 
tinct  part  of  it.  We  may  have  the  bap¬ 
tism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  without  the 
special  signs  of  power  promised  in  this 
passage.  These  are  given  to  a  particular 
class,  namely,  “Those  that  believe.”  Dr. 
Young  translates  the  passage,  “Them 
that  believe  these  things.”  It  is  not 
merely  believing  the  gospel,  but  believing 
for  the  especial  promises  and  signs.  We 
get  just  what  we  believe  for.  Conse¬ 
quently,  since  the  church  has  lost  her 
faith  in  a  great  measure  in  the  supernat¬ 
ural  signs  and  workings  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  she  has  lost  the  signs  also,  and  the 
result  is  that  she  is  compelled  to  produce 
conviction  upon  the  minds  of  the  heathen 


19 


very  largely  by  purely  rational  and  moral 
considerations  and  influences,  and  the 
direct  appeal  to  the  supernatural  power 
of  God,  which  the  apostles  ever  made,  is 
rarely  witnessed. 

The  need,  however,  for  these  supernat¬ 
ural  evidences  among  the  heathen  is  as 
great  as  ever.  The  Brahmins  of  India 
can  reason  as  wide  as  we.  The  intellects 
of  China  are  as  profound  as  ours;  the 
literature  of  heathen  nations  is  full  of 
subtility  and  sophistry  that  can  match  all 
our  arguments  ;  but  in  the  touch  of  God 
there  is  something  that  man  cannot  an¬ 
swer  nor  explain  away.  God  has  been 
pleased  to  give  these  signs  in  the  work  at 
home  in  these  last  days.  He  has  shown 
His  supernatural  power  in  the  healing  of 
disease  and  in  marvelous  answers  to 
prayer,  and  He  is  just  as  willing  to  do  the 
same  things  in  the  sight  of  the  heathen, 
if  we  will  but  believe  for  these  things. 

We  are  not  to  go  abroad  to  preach  the 


20 


signs,  nor  to  begin  with  the  signs,  nor  to 
produce  the  signs  ourselves  ;  our  business 
is  not  to  work  miracles  and  wait  until  we 
can  before  telling  the  story  oi  Jesus. 
Our  work  is  to  tell  the  simple  story  of 
His  life  and  death  and  His  resurrection, 
and  to  preach  the  gospel  in  its  purity ; 
but  to  do  it  expecting  the  Lord  to  prove 
the  reality  of  His  power,  and  to  give  the 
signs  which  He  has  promised. 

Now,  in  order  to  do  this,  there  must 
not  only  be  faith  on  the  part  of  the  iso¬ 
lated  missionary,  but  there  must  be  sup¬ 
porting  faith  on  the  part  of  those  who 
send  him.  There  must  be  the  united  ex¬ 
pectancy  of  the  missionary  abroad  and 
the  church  at  home,  reaching  across  and 
around  the  world,  and  touching  ht^aven 
with  a  chain  of  believing  prayer.  We 
must  more  and  more  recognize  this  il  we 
expect  our  missionaries  to  be  armed  vvith 
a  special  supernatural  power,  and  our 
work  abroad  to  have  the  very  same  feat- 


ures  as  the  work  at  home.  Too  little 
have  we  recognized  this  in  our  Mission¬ 
ary  Alliance,  but  as  we  do  so  more  and 
more,  God  will  meet  our  expectation,  and 
even  the  perils  of  dangerous  climates  and 
the  difficulties  that  confront  our  work 
will  become  occasions  for  yet  greater  vic¬ 
tories  for  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  mightier 
displays  of  the  divine  omnipotence. 

Beloved,  God  is  calling  us  in  these  last 
days  to  be  the  instruments  and  channels 
through  whom  He  can  speak  to  the  na¬ 
tions,  and  when  we  are  prepared  to 
understand  Him  and  answer  His  call, 
a  very  few  of  us  will  be  mightier  than 
millions.  God  used  a  Daniel  in  Baby¬ 
lon,  Nehemiah  in  Jerusalem,  and  Esther 
in  Persia,  through  simple  divine  faith  in 
Him,  to  accomplish  more  for  His  glory 
with  great  nations  and  empires  than  the 
whole  kingdom  of  Judea  had  been  able  to 
accomplish  in  many  centuries.  There 
are  dangers  of  excess  and  fanaticism,,  we 


22 


admit,  and  by  these  the  enemy  will  try  to 
destroy  that  which  is  true  and  prejudice 
that  which  is  genuine  ;  but  there  is  the 
middle  ground  of  supernatural  reality  and 
power,  where  we  may  safely  stand,  as  far 
on  one  side  from  the  excesses  of  Irving- 
ism  as  it  is  on  the  other  from  the  coldness 
of  unbelief.  We  cannot  expect  the  power 
of  God  to  be  manifested  at  the  will  and 
caprice  of  men  as  a  mere  wonder-work¬ 
ing  power  ;  but  where  the  conditions  are 
properly  met  in  a  simple,  holy  and  hum¬ 
ble  faith,  God  will  not  disappoint  His 
trusting  children,  and  will  prove,  as  ever 
in  the  past,  that  ‘‘Jesus  Christ  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day  and  forever.’^ 

9.  The  home  preparation.  In  the  story 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  have  a  very 
instructive  illustration  of  the  necessity  of 
the  thorough  preparation  of  the  home 
field  for  the  work  abroad. 

God  did  not  immediately  begin  foreign 
missions  in  the  first  days  of  the  Apostlic 


23 


Church,  because  the  church  itself  was  not 
ready.  It  would  not  have  been  possible 
to  start  a  crusade  for  the  world  from  Jer¬ 
usalem — that  church  was  too  conserva¬ 
tive  and  cold.  God  had  to  start  a  new 
centre.  Therefore  the  church  in  Antioch 
was  raised  up. 

It  was  a  mixed  community — Jews  and 
Gentiles  and  all  social  classes.  There 
were  some  there  who  belonged  to  the 
court  of  Herod ;  there  was  the  scholarly 
Saul  of  Tarsus;  there  was  the  good 
brother  Barnaby,  a  business  man  ;  there 
was  poor  Simeon,  a  black  man.  It 
was  a  cosmopolitan  company.  It  was 
not  formed  by  ecclesiastical  hands.  It 
had  3  ust  grown  up  spontaneously  and  prov¬ 
identially  by  a  few  simple  words  that  these 
men  had  spoken  one  to  another  about  this 
wonderful  gospel.  There  was  a  freedom, 
f^implicity,  largeness  and  freshness  about 
this  church  in  Antioch  that  brought  it 
into  touch  with  the  great  outlying  world. 


24 


and  it  was  from  this  centre  that  God  sent 
forth  the  great  missionary  movement, 
from  which  our  own  evangelization  has 
come,  and  which  to-day  is  broadening  into 
the  evangelization  of  the  whole  world. 

All  this  has  its  parallel  in  the  church 
of  to-day.  It  is  not  possible  through  a 
cold,  conservative  ecclesiasticism  to  de¬ 
velop  a  true  missionary  movement.  The 
work  at  home  will  always  be  reproduced 
abroad.  Therefore,  in  these  last  days, 
God  has  been  raising  up  in  the  home 
field,  not  a  new  sect,  but  a  new  spiritual 
movement  in  all  the  churches;  a  sort  of 
church  within  a  church.  A  spiritual 
company  bound  together  by  invisible 
cords  and  touching  hearts  and  hands  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  And  from  these  conse¬ 
crated  circles  He  is  calling  out  a  new 
missionary  movement.  From  them  are 
coming  men  and  women  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  give  their  lives  to  the 
work, and  from  them  are  coming,  through 


25 


special  self-sacrifice  and  consecrated 
business,  large  and  wondrous  offerings, 
that  have  awakened  the  attention  of  all 
Christians. 

People  ask  us  how  it  is  that  money  can 
be  so  easily  obtained  and  in  such  large 
sums.  Back  of  it  lies  a  deep,  spiritual 
cause,  a  work  of  many  years,  a  glori¬ 
ous  movement  which  has  been  deepening 
the  life  and  love  of  God  in  Christian 
hearts,  and  preparing  them  to  feel  that 
no  gift  nor  sacrifice  was  worthy  for  a 
moment  to  be  compared  with  the  blessing 
that  they  had  received.  It  would  be  im¬ 
possible  to  go  to  an  ordinary  congregation 
of  even  wealthy  people  and  obtain  any 
such  offerings  unless  they  had  been  pre- 
\iously  prepared  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  It 
is  because  these  people  have  given  them¬ 
selves  and  all  they  have  to  the  Lord,  and 
have  found  in  Him  a  life  and  joy  which 
nothing  could  recompense,  and  they  are 
glad  to  give  aU  they  possess  to  send 


26 


abroad  the  gospel  and  share  this  blessed' 
ness  with  other  hearts.  And  such  a  spir¬ 
itual  movement  will  always  produce  its 
counterpart  in  the  foreign  field.  The 
work  that  grows  out  of  such  lives,  will 
be  a  living,  supernatural,  aggressive  and 
whole-hearted  work. 

We  do  not  for  a  moment  suggest 
any  invidious  comparisons,  we  recognize 
the  piety  and  devotedness  of  the  mission¬ 
aries  on  the  field,  but  we  do  say  that  those 
that  have  come  from  warm  and  loving 
churches,  and  that  are  supported  in  the 
spirit  of  self-denial,  and  upheld  by  believ¬ 
ing  prayer  in  the  churches  at  home,  will 
be  the  highest  type  of  missionaries  abroad. 

And  so,  let  us  not  be  slothful  nor  neg¬ 
ligent  of  the  work  in  our  midst.  Even 
while  laboring  for  the  evangelization  of 
the  world,  let  us  consider  one  another  to 
provoke  to  love  and  to  good  works,  and 
as  the  tides  deepen  here  they  will  over¬ 
flow  on  every  distant  shore. 


27 


10.  The  spirit  of  New  Testament  Mis¬ 
sions  is  an  aggressive  one,  ever  reaching 
out  to  regions  beyond.  2  Cor.  x:  16, 
‘  ‘  To  preach  the  gospel  in  the  regions  be¬ 
yond  and  not  to  build  on  another  man’s 
foundation,”  this  was  the  spirit  of  Paul’s 
ministry.  Ever  reaching  out  to  unoccu¬ 
pied  fields,  and  never  satisfied  while  there 
was  still  another  land  or  tribe  that  had 
not  received  the  gospel. 

After  eighteen  centuries  there  are  still 
boundless  fields  in  the  regions  beyond  for 
us  to  reach  out  to..  Of  the  world’s  3,000 
languages,  2,700  at  least  yet  remain  in 
which  the  gospel  has  not  been  preached, 
and  the  Bible  has  not  been  translated. 
W'e  have  already  spoken  of  the  nations 
and  peoples  that  have  never  heard  of 
Jesus. 

Oh,  surely  every  true  and  noble  heart 
must  understand  the  aspiration  of  the 
great  apostle,  and  long  to  break  away 
from  the  old  trodden  paths  where  so 


28 


many  others  are  competing  for  a  place, and 
where  there  are  few  that  have  not  some 
chance  of  knowing  the  story  of  salvation, 
and  claiming  whole  tribes  and  nations  for 
our  inheritance  and  our  spiritual  off¬ 
spring.  There  are  hundreds  competing 
for  the  one  jewel  that  you  are  striving 
for  at  home,  and  when  you  grasp  it  you 
will  have  to  share  it  with  others.  There 
are  treasures  in  dark  mines  abroad  that 
none  can  claim  with  you,  but  which  you 
and  your  precious  Lord  may  share  to¬ 
gether  through  the  ages  of  glory,  as  a 
recompense  of  your  labors. 

William  Carey  might  have  been  the 
pastor  of  a  little  English  village,  but  now 
he  is  the  apostle  of  India.  Judson  might 
have  had  a  very  prominent  church  in 
New  England,  but  he  is  the  father  of  the 
Karens  of  Burmah. 

Oh,  let  us  realize  the  honors  and  oppor¬ 
tunities  of  our  life,  and  despise  the  sacrifices 


29 


and  the  trials  through  which  they  must 
be  won. 

11.  The  standpoint  of  Christian  mis¬ 
sions.  Acts  xvi:  16,  17.  “God  at  the  first 
did  visit  the  Gentiles  to  take  out  of  them 
a.  people  for  His  name.”  After  this,  He 
says,  “I  will  return  and  build  again  the 
tabernacle  of  David  that  has  fallen  down ; 
restoring  the  ruins  that  the  residue  ot 
men  may  seek  after  the  Lord,  and  all  the 
Gentiles  on  whom  my  name  is  called, 
saith  the  Lord  that  doeth  all  these  things.” 

Here  we  have  three  distinct  stages. 
First,  God  visits  the  Gentiles  to  take  out 
of  them  a  people  to  his  name.  This  is 
what  He  is  doing  in  the  missionary  work 
of  to-day.  Second,  after  this.  He  re¬ 
turns  to  restore  Israel  and  build  again 
the  tabernacle  of  His  ancient  people. 
This  is  His  second  coming  for  which  we 
are  looking  and  waiting.  And  then, 
thirdly,  after  His  coming,  the  residue  of 
men  and  all  the  Gentiles  will  seek  and 


80 


find  Him,  and  in  the  millennial  ages  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord  will  cover  the 
earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

This  is  all  very  simple  and  plain.  This 
is  the  divine  order  up  to  which  we  are 
working.  God  is  simply  visiting  the 
Gentiles  to-day.  It  is  a  passing  call.  It 
is  a  selection  of  those  who  are  willing  to 
come.  It  is  a  spiritual  preparation  for 
His  advent.  He  is  gathering  an  escort 
which,  in  every  tongue  that  man  has 
spoken,  shall  be  able  to  herald  the  com¬ 
ing  King,  and  stand  in  glorious  ranks 
around  His  millennial  throne,  as  the  first 
fruits  of  the  nations. 

This  is  our  mighty  calling,  to  find  a 
bride  for  Him ;  to  gather  a  people  for 
Him ;  to  invite  one  and  two  and  three 
here  and  there  to  meet  Him.  Let  us  not 
be  surprised  if  multitudes  refuse  to  come, 
they  are  doing  it  at  home,  they  will  do  it 
in  the  lines  abroad,  but  let  us  be  content 
if  we  find  His  sheep ;  if  we  gather  His 


31 


people.  Yes,  if  we  even  invite  them 
What  an  infinite  encouragement  thij 
gives  to  missionary  work  1  We  are  noi 
depressed  if  the  world  refuses  to  accept 
its  Lord.  It  has  always  done  so,  it 
will  do  so  till  He  comes,  and  seed  will  still 
be  scattered  in  every  field  and  furrow, 
and  much  of  it  will  be  choked  with  thorns, 
and  plucked  up  by  birds  of  the  air  or 
withered  by  the  stony  places;  but  some 
will  bear  fruit  and  His  expectation  will 
not  be  disappointed. 

12.  Finally,  the  end.  Matt,  xxiv  :  14, 
‘‘This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  must  be 
preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  witness 
unto  all  nations  and  then  shall  the  end 
come.” 

This  is  the  consummation  of  the  last 
point.  We  are  preaching  the  gospel  not 
for  the  conversion  of  the  world,  but  for  a 
witness  unto  all  nations,  and  when  we 
shall  have  accomplished  this.  He  will 
come.  He  has  given  to  us  the  key  to  the 


82 


future.  He  has  put  in  our  hands  the 
secret  of  ages.  God^s  great  chronometer 
does  not  measure  time  by  days  and  years, 
but  by  preparations  and  conditions,  and 
the  hour  of  the  Marriage  of  the  Lamb  may 
be  fixed  by  the  bride. 

Oh  I  how  this  should  stir  and  thrill  our 
hearts  with  holy  energy  and  aspiration  ! 
I  cannot  understand  how  any  man  or 
woman  can  believe  in  the  Lord’s  coming 
and  not  be  a  missionary,  or  at  least  com¬ 
mitted  to  the  work  of  missions  with  every 
power  of  his  being.  There  is  no  mockery 
more  sad  and  inconsistent  than  that  of 
believing  and  speaking  of  the  Blessed 
Hope  with  folded  hands  and  selfish  heart. 

No  man  can  rightly  believe  in  the  com¬ 
ing  of  Jesus  without  expending  all  the 
strength  of  his  being  in  preparing  for  it 
by  sending  the  gospel  to  all  nations.  God 
is  summoning  those  who  hold  this  hope 
to-day  to  a  great  missionary  crusade,  and 
there  are  enough  of  these  to  make  it 


88 


effectual  before  the  close  of  the  genera¬ 
tion,  perhaps  before  the  end  of  the  cen« 
tury. 

The  Master’s  comiD^  draweth  near, 

The  Son  of  Man  will  soon  be  here, 

His  kingdom  is  at  hand. 

Bat  ere  that  glorious  day  can  be, 

This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  we 
Must  preach  in  every  land. 

Oh,  let  us  then  His  coming  naste  I 
Oh,  let  us  end  this  awful  waste 
Of  souls  that  never  die! 

A  thousand  millions  still  are  lost, 

A  Saviour’s  blood  has  paid  the  costk 
Oh,  hear  their  dying  cryl 


